Charity seeks £1m a year for ordinariate

Priests of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (Photo: Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk)

Friends of the Ordinariate launched to help raise funds for its priests

A new initiative to support struggling members of the Personal Ordinariate financially was launched yesterday by its Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton.

The group, the Friends of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, was founded after Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called on Catholics “to assist the new ordinary in the unique mission that has been entrusted to him by the Holy Father not only with your prayers but also with every practical support”.

During the launch, at the Friary in Victoria, London, Mgr Newton said that the annual running costs of the ordinariate would reach £1 million and would eventually increase. He said that many ordinariate clergy not only have wives but dependent children as well.

Mgr Newton said: “I have the responsibility for providing the financial needs of the clergy and for their families being received into the Catholic Church. I appeal, therefore, to as many of you as possible for financial assistance to help me fulfil that responsibility through joining the Friends of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Please be as generous as you can.”

In a statement earlier, he had said: “These former Anglican priests and religious have sacrificed their homes and livelihoods to become Catholics. A number of them are not only married but have dependent children. Naturally, the Church of England ceased to have financial responsibility for them on their resignation from office.”

Testimonies were presented by Fr Paul Burch, who has four children, and Fr Jonathan Redvers Harris, who has five. Fr Harris said: “We have no savings, no property, our car is on its last legs, and to help things along my wife has prematurely drawn her very modest civil service pension.”

Fr Redvers Harris and Fr Paul Birch explained that in their former role as Anglican priests they had a guarateed pension and a house until they were 70. At present, the ordinariate provides no such security.

Patrons of the new group include Charles Moore, the Duke of Norfolk and Fra’ Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the Order of Malta.

At the press conference Mgr Newton said he hoped the ordinariate would have a church in London “within a few months”.

Mgr John Broadhurst, who assists Mgr Newton in his role as Ordinary, was asked about the donation of £1 million by the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, an Anglo-Catholic charity, to the ordinariate. The donation has prompted a complaint to the Charity Commission from one Anglican minister. Mgr Broadhurst said “all indications” were that the Charity Commission would dismiss the complaint.

He said: “The trustees thought this was, in good faith, a better way to further their aims and objectives.” He cited its purpose as “the advancement of the Catholic faith in the Anglican tradition”.

And the death of the News of The World, for all its remaining faults, is nothing to crow about

Madeleine Teahan is Associate Editor at the Catholic Herald and chairs the
Catholic Herald Podcast Debates. Her special interests include euthanasia
and assisted suicide. She is on Twitter as @MadeleineTeahan

Comments

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John Mpv

I think there has been slightly more than one complaint to the Charity Commissioners

Alan

Not a brass farthing until they stop looting charities.

Even if it is adjudged “legal” it stinks and is not honest.

jones

the ordinariate sounds ‘double speak’ to me ! a catholic faith in the anglican tradition .
kind of cotradictory when taking ”papacy” into acount .
they seem pre-occupied with pensions and housing – not what could be termed christian let alone catholic ?

johnnewbery485

Very strange how various correspondents seek to rubbish all efforts to make the Ordinariate work. Every enterprise needs funds with which to operate, and working under charity law there will be oversight from the Charity Commissioners. Why not leave these matters to the body charged with regulatory action? As regards the phrase ” Catholic faith in the Anglican tradition”, this is very much the idea of the Holy Father in setting up Anglicanorum Coetibus. Perhaps ‘jones’ would like to consider that point.

Robert Ian williams

I was infuriated by the comment on sacrifice…our priests give up families to exercise their vocation.

What is legal, is not necessarily moral…..Futhermore how can an ordinariate priest, who has accepted that Anglican orders are invalid by accepting unconditional ordination in the Catholic Church, belong to an Anglican charity promoting the worship of bread! Anglicans do not have the power to confect the eucharist of our Lord’s body and blood?

johnnewbery485

Robert – you are going too far again…….”our priests………..”……….. The Holy Father and the CDF have arranged matters so that the former Anglican ministers ordained by Bishops from the England and Wales hierachy are also ‘our’ (and ‘your’) priests. Which part of the process do you not accept? Do you relish your role as Witchfinder General of the blogosphere?

James

Well they have their first million – looted by stealth.

Reginald Sparrow

When the Roman Catholic Church comes to terms with the findings of modern New Testament scholarship and accepts that, from the evidence available, it is not possible to arrive at the Historical Jesus and that it is not possible to establish all that went on in the Primitive Church then we might be some way to achieving unity between Rome and Canterbury. Rome’s claim that Anglican orders are not valid is very much open to academic debate and, in my opinion, without foundation. Very few Anglican priests were re-ordained by Reginald Pole, the only ones being those who had married. Moreover, it is possible to prove that those bishops who consecrated Matthew Parker all possessed valid orders standing in Apostolic Succession to the Apostles, in fact “all” priests Anglican and Roman are technically bishops, the office of bishop being a later development in the Primitive Church. The New Testament documents are incomplete. There is strong evidence to suggest that women were concelebrating the Eucharist alongside the male apostles so that Anglican women priests and bishops already possess valid orders anyway. Rome stifles academic scholarship and for this reason is anathema. All of these arguments are so divorced from the Life and Teaching of Our Lord anyway it amazes me that any intelligent person can subscribe to them. If there is anyone who cares to contact me leaving their email address I will reply in more academic detail, but it may take a while so they would have to be patient. My Email address is sparrowrgnlds@aol.com